Move Your Body - advice from Keri Smith

I have been reading Keri Smith's blog recently.  Somewhere on the blog she gives a list of critical things to do to be a successful illustrator (or creative person).  One of these is "Move your body"  which is derived from the principle of getting more oxygen to the brain.  I have noticed that I often do my best thinking when doing my 1000m at the swimming pool.

Today I went for a bike ride with Maurice and Jim. Apparently (as usual) I pedalled like a maniac along the Flitch Way, and had a lovely bike ride.  While biking, I was thinking about the aspects of women's work, specifically in relation to me.  Certain activities I do repeatedly and contentedly, others I want nothing to do with!  Most of the roles that I enjoy are around cooking, food shopping, gardening, and ironing.  I think this is because they are clean, creative activities.  I loathe cleaning with a passion.  So as we pedalled along I was happily looking at elderberries, sloes, rose hips, apples and blackberries, working out what I could turn them into, if I were so minded.  Jim was experimenting with his new camera and took some lovely photos of these, and on returning home, I noted that some images would make excellent subjects for colour identification exercises.  I could happily do design work from these sources.

Yet, when I think about cleaning as women's work, I can see some of my prints using cleaning fluid bottles is quite imaginative, but struggle to see how I would use them in my work.

Thinking about imagination, brings me back to yesterday's trip out to the theatre to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  A wonderful show that left me with two key thoughts.  The first is that at the end of the show, Willie Wonka makes the point to Charlie, that the reason he is chosen to inherit the chocolate factory, is because he has imagination to take the creative process forward.

The second thought was sheer admiration for the costumes.  I thought the variety of Oompa-Loompa costumes were fantastic.  As they are small people, they were portrayed in a variety of ways.  One was with actors on their knees, always facing forward so you could not see their feet behind them.  Another scene was with the Oompa-Loompas dancing on a bridge.  It took a while to work out, but the face and legs were played by one actor, with the arms played by another actor completely covered in black, so unseen.  The dance routine was very funny, quite gymnastic and entertaining.  There were quite a few costumes where one actor was appearing as two characters (like an Oompa-Loompa riding a squirrel).  A very old trick but well portrayed.  I liked the one where one Oompa-Loompa appeared to be bent double while carrying another Oompa-Loompa sitting in a fruit crate on his back.  I am very admiring of the costume designers who came up with these ideas.  The imagination of others deserves respect.  And these designers have mine.